The fleeing bullfighter who saw sense

Footage of Mexican bullfighter Christian Hernandez fleeing the ring
last Sunday at the first sight of the slaveringly piqued slab of beef
in the opposite corner has become a global internet hit. Hernandez was
making his debut at Mexico City's Plaza Mexico: in the event he tried
a token spin, appeared briefly on the verge of gelatinous collapse, and
then hot-footed it over the nearest wall. He has since admitted, "I
didn't have the balls – this is not my thing".

Perhaps the only real surprise here is that this doesn't happen more
often. Even with the inclusion of bullfighting – at the more extreme
end of what might legitimately be called sport – Hernandez joins
a surprisingly select line of sportsmen who have discovered in the heat
of battle that, frankly, they'd rather be at home doing something else.

The boxer Oliver McCall had a similar experience during a bizarre world-title
bout against Lennox Lewis in 1997. In the fourth round McCall burst into
tears and refused to carry on, a shockingly sensible, and shockingly rare,
reaction to being repeatedly punched in the head. The England cricket
captain Mike Denness famously dropped himself from the team during the
Ashes tour of 1974-5 because he felt unable to face the furiously intimidatory
pace bowling of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee.

A sense of creeping futility has often seemed to be the biggest obstacle
facing snooker's most talented player, Ronnie O'Sullivan. Four years ago
at the UK Championships he did what no snooker player, perhaps bafflingly,
has ever done before, walking out on his quarter final against Steven
Hendry after just five frames because he was bored. O'Sullivan later explained
that he "had just had enough".

Which, to anyone who has ever spent six hours pinging a ball around a
table, will perhaps sound entirely understandable. As will Hernandez's
latest move; aged 22, he has now announced his retirement from bullfighting.